Blitz Players stronger at 1100 to 1200?

My player rating has gone up-and-down like a yo-yo. Sometimes I’m playing distracted, sometimes I just resign if I blunder instead of playing it out, etc.

But I’ve noticed for some reason if I drop down to 1100 to 1200, and sometimes even lower, it can be really really hard to claw back. I will go on losing streaks where I feel like I’m winning the opening but somewhere along the way they start playing like Magnus Carlson (if you’ll indulge me a little hyperbole).

I’ve climbed up to the high 1400s which is a new high for me, and now I feel like I’m pretty evenly matched with the people I’ve been playing against. I win some and lose some.

Is the inflated strength of online blitz players in the lower range all in my head? Has anyone else experienced this?

exactly the same.

What is 5576x?

 

Nonsense.

 

More nonsense.

Should be a difference. I notice that when I go in slumps The players below me start playing well. Maybe it's mental. 

As somebody who has over a few years climbed up the rating ladder what your saying is a load of rubbish. The gap in between a 1600 player and a 1000 player is enormous. This is obvious because if the 1000 player were better his rating would go up

@JamesAgadir Agreed. It is true that there is a difference in playing level, although it may not be as apparent as when you are higher up in the ratings. A 1600 player, for example, knows some basic opening theory, basic endgame theory, and can string a sequence of moves together into a plan. Calculation level can vary. A 1000 player typically just doesn't hang pieces and knows only the most basic of principles (castle early, develop pieces, etc.) 

However, MODERNPLAYER is not completely incorrect, if a bit confused. The difference between a 1000 and 1600 player is much less than, for example, a 2400 and a 2000 player. This is mainly due to the increased difficulty in gaining rating points at that level, and the amount of work that goes into each one.

If you're talking about online chess (let's say on this website) then the rating system is a little bit unbalanced. The difference between a 1000 player and a 1600 player online can be huge. 1000 players on this site make tactical and strategic errors much more often than players with the same OTB rating, while 1600 players on this site just play a little worse than their OTB counterparts.

Constructive criticism, comments and questions are welcome. 

I was talking about online though I think that OTB the difference can be even bigger. I have a quite low (fide) rating, under 1600 but can beat a 1000 with time odds of 2 to 10 minutes (this is just a fact) and would find it easy with 10 to 3 time odds. I am probably underrated but I think 1600 would be a fair (fide) rating for me in slow.

Let's get back to the original proposition-- that the 1100 to 1200 are an especially tough rating group.

I think that it's possible that many stronger players from around the world try to play on chess.com with bad connections, so that their rating ends up lower than their actual playing strength. Since they start with 1200 ratings, just a few losses puts them in the 1100 to 1200 category.

It seems possible that many players with bad connections get tired of losing through disconnection. 

I don't think that's particularly true I might suggest to the OP that he has simply improved.

I’m going to have to agree with the “nonsense“ comment. On my last deployment, one of my soldiers played chess for fun and I was significantly better than him. He asked me to teach him how to get better, and so every time we played I was giving him pointers and I introduced him to Chess.com.

He was very excited and proud when his chest.com blitz rating surpassed 1000 and then 1100. I think at the time my blitz rating was in the 1200s to 1300s. After a couple dozen games he only managed to beat me a handful of times, maybe three or four and all but one were based on dumb blunders.

If there was a big difference between me and him there certainly a big difference between a 1000 and 1600 player.

I hate it when you win you win so little and you lose soooooo much

I don’t think that 1100 to 1200 rated players are stronger than other rating groups. I think if you dropped down to their rating and are finding it difficult to come back up then it is likely just because you are in a chess playing slump. My rating goes through similar peaks and valleys. I would normally expect to beat an 1800 or 1900 rated player most of the time but when I am going through a bad stretch my rating drops and I find it difficult to play well consistently enough to get back to where I should be.

He said:

However, MODERNPLAYER is not completely incorrect, if a bit confused. 

 

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but I completely agree with this. I had been dwingling around 1250 for my first 100 or so matches. A couple of days ago I had a terrible slump and lost every game I played. I went down to 1050. I can't climb back anymore. They are too strong. For some reason players at 1200-1300 are weaker than 1000-1100 players.

just take a break and come back to playing

it will boost your thinking power if u take a break from electonics

Whenever I go into a slump, it's because I have a mindset like this (in context, I just dropped to 1700.)

Me: *loses to a 1820*

Me: how could I lose? I was 1900 yesterday. I should play a couple more games to get my rating up

Me: *continues losing*

Me: drops <1800

With the mindset "I'm better than you because I was much higher recently" I stop thinking, because "I should beat them easily." however, this doesn't take into account that my opponents ARE thinking, and so I keep making blunders and losing. 

Now, I just stop playing

I have the same problem, however I don't think all 1000-1100 players are stronger than 1200 ones. In some of my recent games I played people in the 1000-1100 range who didn't even know basic tactics and normal development. But I also found a lot of people stronger than me, who were in the 1200s at some point. Overall I believe that blitz ratings are a bit over the place and don't always indicate your true skill.

I think I'm moving back to 30 min rapid, I'm better at longer time controls anyway. Maybe I'll consider taking a break, these losing streaks are driving me crazy.